The Chicken Ranch Casino in Jamestown, California, is in the midst of an expansion and renovation that could eventually lead to a new casino within a decade, the first since the original one opened as a bingo hall in 1985. The current renovation is expected to be done by May.
The Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, which has about 40 members, of whom 20 are old enough to vote, just completed building a new event’s hall and recently purchased the Jamestown Hotel to provide more amenities for casino guests.
To focus the expanded economic energy, the tribe recently created a new economic development company that is now formulating a five-year plan.
The tribe and its newly reelected leader, Chairman Lloyd Mathiesen, was interviewed last week by Clarke Broadcasting. He talked about the tribe’s plans for expansion. Some things have already been done, such as adding 247 slot machines and nine gaming tables, to bring the total to just over 600 machines. This was seen as necessary since the existing machines are about 95 percent of capacity during busy times.
“It’s going to allow our guests to have a much better experience,” said the chairman. “Hopefully, it will drive more business as well,” he told the Sonora Union Democrat.
The tribe is working with Caltrans to fund a roundabout on Highway 108 to make it easier for patrons to enter and exit the casino. Roadwork is expected to begin by the spring of 2020. If a new casino is built it will be located nearer to the roundabout.
“That’s what we would love to do,” said Mathiesen. “Obviously we have to renegotiate our compact with the new Governor, Gavin Newsom. We also want to see how our new expansion goes off. But we’re shooting for 5-8 years (for a new casino). That’s what we’d like.” The current expansion is adding 66 percent to the existing structure.
The tribe is also partnering with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (“Cal Poly”) for an agricultural project on 600 acres that the tribe owns across the highway from the casino. The tribe purchased the land piecemeal over the decades. The partnership is in the early planning stages as they test the soil to determine the best crops, how much water will be needed and where to get it.
The tribe has been closely watching a recent plan passed by the California Water Resources Control Board for diverting a large percentage of water from Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers into the lower San Joaquin River.
The purchase of the Jamestown Hotel is the tribe’s first venture inside the city where most tribal members grew up. Mathiesen said, “It allows us to be a part of the Jamestown community, as far as downtown, and we can see what we can do, as far as other changes, so that it can get back to where it used to be.” He added, “We wanted to do something in Jamestown because that’s where we all grew up after the state took our land in the ‘50s. We’re excited for this next venture.”
The tribe was given federal recognition in 1983 and opened a casino two years later. “We know we need to constantly move, adapt, and change when it comes to business,” said Mathiesen, who has been chairman since 2010.
One theme under his leadership has been to diversify the tribe’s businesses and buy back the ancestral lands that were taken during the period between 1950-70 when California and the U.S. government attempted to dismantle many reservations and decertify tribes through a series of laws called the California Rancheria Termination Acts. During that dark period for tribes, over 2 million acres of reservation land were taken out of trust status and often sold to non-natives.
It was only after 16 California tribes banded together to challenge the terminations in the federal court that a landmark 1983 court case ended the terminations and began rolling them back.
Speaking of the tribe’s spurt of activity, the chairman quipped “We’re late bloomers, but we’re off and running now.”
